


Stares and Whispers

by stitchcasual



Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Office, Imagine your OTP, M/M, assumed affairs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 14:39:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9239333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stitchcasual/pseuds/stitchcasual
Summary: Imagine Your OTP: Hawke and Fenris get a job at the same company but no one knows they're married to each other. Cue some awkward flailing and misunderstandings.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Based on [this prompt](https://stitchcasual.tumblr.com/post/155512002539/lawlu-minssery-ask-bot-whats-the-most)
> 
> 100% self-indulgent, 60% fluff (seriously, there is more angst here than I expected)
> 
> Let me know if there are any funny tense changes; I don't write in past tense often!

Hawke got the job first, just a low-level data analysis position at Gallows, Inc., a huge, multi-national firm with offices dotted all over Thedas. The branch in Kirkwall was one of the smaller ones, if the word small could be used to describe a seven-story building in which hundreds of people worked. It was something of a career change for Hawke, who had been in information security until a few years ago. He’d taken a leave of absence from his job after his mother died, on the pretense of taking care of the old family estate and settling her affairs. But a few weeks’ leave of absence turned into several months turned into his boss leaving a sympathetic voicemail but stating in no uncertain terms that they had found someone to fill his position since he couldn’t be there.

Fenris understood. Or, at least, did his best to understand. He’d never had much in the way of family he was close to. He supported Hawke regardless and quietly added a few hours to his work schedule each week to help compensate for the lost income. In the end, though, Hawke simply had to go back to work. 

Working at Gallows wasn’t too bad. A little monotonous, sure, but within a few weeks, Hawke had made enough friends that he had someone to talk to on his breaks and lunches, people to commiserate with about the CEO, Meredith Stannard, and the ridiculous corporate standards she set. Still, they were work colleagues, and he didn’t overshare and neither did they. He only knew Merrill was seeing someone who made her giggle when she talked about them, that Anders would clam up when asked about a significant other, that Varric considered his car, Bianca, to be his one and only, and that Sebastian was married to his work. They, in turn, just knew that his husband was objectively the best person in the universe.

His husband also worked night shift, which meant he was asleep or going to bed when Hawke got up in the morning and left for work before Hawke went to bed. It had been a fine arrangement when Hawke was unemployed, since he could do whatever he wanted with his schedule then. But working in an office, especially Meredith Stannard’s office, meant he was in his seat promptly at 8:00 am and left no earlier than 5:00 pm, and the strain of keeping up a relationship on opposite schedules was starting to show.

Hawke didn’t know when last they’d made love; any time either of them tried to initiate, the other was always too tired or late to work or just plain not in the mood. He’d snapped at Fenris a couple weeks ago about the man’s inability to express gratitude when Hawke took the time to make him lunch before going to bed. Fenris had simmered in repressed anger for a few days after Hawke forgot to cap the milk completely and it spilled all over the kitchen when Fenris tried to make his breakfast.

They made up afterward, they always did, pressing kisses to foreheads, cheeks, lips, I’m sorrys passing from one to the other in the force of a hug or the brush of fingers through hair. But they were hurried apologies, two ships that passed in the night and could only lift the lights on their lanterns so much before they were gone. So when a position opened up at Gallows, Hawke printed it off and left it on the kitchen table for Fenris to see.

A month later, Hawke pulled Fenris in for a kiss when he came home from the interview, and finally, finally, he took Fenris to bed, worshipping every inch of the suit Fenris wore as he unclothed him to worship every inch of bared skin. They fell asleep together for the first time in long months, and Hawke prayed with the desperation of one who’s never prayed a day in his life that Fenris would get the job.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself.” 

Hawke grinned, coming to stand next to Fenris at the coffee machine in the break room. Fenris was still adjusting to this new daylight-hours schedule and consumed a nearly worrisome amount of coffee on a daily basis. He brought a full mug from home in the mornings, refilled it during his first break, and got at least a half cup at lunch as well.

Fenris blinked blearily up at Hawke, though he smiled back. “I should, uh,” he said, jerking his thumb back toward the cubicles.

“Right, yeah. Don’t let me keep you.” Hawke waved and Fenris departed. Sebastian gave Hawke an indecipherable look from across the break room, and Hawke waved at him too.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Sebastian and Merrill sat with Fenris when Hawke finally got around to taking his lunch. He grabbed his leftovers from the fridge and pulled out the chair next to Fenris, playfully knocking shoulders. Merrill exchanged a look with Sebastian, opening her mouth to say something when Fenris pushed back from the table.

“Regretfully, it is time for me to return.”

Hawke pouted. “But I just got here.”

“Perhaps if you didn’t insist on taking your lunch so late, we could eat together.” Fenris frowned at Hawke but touched the top of his head as he left. Hawke watched him leave, sighing, then turned back to his friends.

“How’s your Tuesday, Merrill?” He speared some pasta salad onto a disposable fork and gave her his rapt attention.

“Fi-ine,” she sang, not quite looking at him.

“Yours, Sebastian?”

“No complaints.”

“You never have any complaints,” Hawke grumbled good-naturedly. “How do you never have any complaints?” 

“Are you happy, Hawke?” Merrill interrupted, looking suddenly quite intense.

“Uh…”

“In your marriage.”

“Yes? Things are actually really great right now.” Now that Fenris worked the same hours Hawke did, they actually had time to exist with each other in the same space. The novelty of the feeling still hadn’t worn off, and they’d had lots of sex to make up for lost time. It was his favorite part of working with Fenris. Well, all of it was his favorite part, but the sex was particularly awesome.

“Oh. That’s good. I think it’s time for me to get back to work, too, actually.” Merrill stood and rushed out of the break room, leaving a very confused Hawke behind.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Hawke loved working with Fenris. He got to wake up with him, eat breakfast with him, and ride the bus with him. He could hold his hand whenever he wanted, provided they both were current on their projects, he could talk and laugh with him on breaks and at lunch, and he could watch his friends becoming Fenris’s friends too. He got to ride the bus home with him, make dinner with him, and go to sleep with him. It was better than the months he spent unemployed.

Then one evening, after dinner and they were splayed out on the couch, watching reruns of something because neither of them could be fussed to actually _pick_ something, Fenris picked at Hawke’s pants leg, a tic he only really did when there was something on his mind. Hawke gave him a few minutes, knowing Fenris needed time to get his thoughts in order.

“Have you noticed…” Fenris began, then halted. Hawke kissed Fenris’s forehead.

“Noticed what?”

“At the office. People...stare.”

Hawke chuckled and wrapped his arms around Fenris. “You are gorgeous, love.”

“Not at me. At us.”

“ _We’re_ gorgeous,” Hawke amended, smiling. 

“That is not….you misunderstand.” Fenris pulled away, sitting up straight and looking directly at Hawke’s nose. “They whisper and stare but stop before I can hear what they’re saying.”

Hawke frowned and sat up himself, fishing with one hand to turn the TV off. Fenris was more sensitive to things like that, his last relationship having been with a manipulative bastard who withheld information because he didn’t consider Fenris capable of handling things without his assistance. It had taken a long time before Fenris accepted Hawke’s help and longer still before he asked for help before Hawke could offer it. To have people talking behind his back now…

“Let them stare,” Hawke said, scooting closer to Fenris so he could kiss his nose. “They’re just jealous.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Fenris was right. Now that Hawke knew to look for it, he couldn’t unsee it. Around each corner, it seemed, someone he knew was talking to someone else, abruptly cutting off when he got closer. And now that he saw it, he could see the effect it was having on Fenris. He smiled less, and for someone whose smiles were rare anyway, it was a jarring thing to see. He spoke less when Hawke saw him with their colleagues, and he looked so much like he just wanted nothing more than to fade into the background and not be noticed. Hawke’s heart ached for him. So he made a decision.

He made it a point to touch Fenris every time he saw him. Passing in the halls? A brush across his hand. Getting coffee together? A kiss on the cheek. Sitting together at lunch? A squeeze of his shoulder. At every point of contact, Hawke could feel Fenris relax, if just slightly, but the stares and whispers didn’t go away. If anything, they got worse. 

Fenris left work early one day, complaining of a migraine. Hawke knew better. He could see the twitching of his eyes and hands when Fenris stopped by his desk to let him know he was going home. It pained Hawke that he had to let Fenris take the bus home by himself during a panic attack, but Fenris told him to stay at work, that he’d be fine.

Hawke made it a full thirty minutes before he requested to be excused for the day as well. “My husband isn’t feeling well,” he told his friends in the break room when he went in to gather his things before heading home. “I’m going home to take care of him.”

He saw the glances exchanged among them, but only Sebastian spoke. “We hope he feels better.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

It took months. Months where Hawke watched as Fenris slowly became more like the man he had been when they first met: closed off, snappish, and broody. His work productivity skyrocketed as a coping mechanism. Hawke still took every moment he could to touch Fenris, held his hand as they walked into the building, hugged him at his desk when he was on break and Fenris wasn’t, and rarely, very rarely, kissed him when it looked like no one was around.

But finally something gave. Hawke didn’t know what. Merrill waved him over to the table in the break room where she sat with Sebastian, Varric, and Anders. The full crew.

“Am I in trouble?” he joked, pulling out a chair. The look traded amongst them wasn’t reassuring.

“Ha-awke,” Merrill began, looking at him earnestly, “we just want you to know that we like you a lot.”

“Um, thanks?”

“Sure thing, Chuckles.” Varric leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms behind his head. “But we don’t like what you’re doing.”

“I’m...confused.”

“Let me spell it out for you,” Anders said. He laced his fingers together on the tabletop. “It’s not fair to Fenris to keep on the way you are.”

“The way we—”

“You know, kissing and hugging and loving on each other,” Merrill explained. Hawke blinked.

“Why not?”

“You’re married, Hawke.” Sebastian now.

“Yeees,” Hawke said.

“So is he.”

“Yeees,” Hawke said.

“You know, I really didn’t think you were quite this dense,” Anders said, pulling his hands apart and gesturing expansively. Varric looked at Anders and they both shrugged.

“Would someone please tell me what you’re all trying to get at?”

“It’s not fair to Fenris to lead him on if you’re married.”

Hawke stared at Merrill and blinked a few more times than absolutely necessary. “But—” And then he started laughing, laughing so hard giant tears welled into the corners of his eyes and he had to wipe them away with the back of his hand. He hadn’t heard something so funny in his life. It warmed his heart that his friends were concerned, but...

“Fenris is—we’re— _he’s_ my husband.” Hawke laughed more at the baffled looks on his friends’ faces. “Please,” he said, “As if Fenris would ever have an affair with _me_. He has better taste.” He blinked. “Wait.”

Fenris’s arms wrapped around him from behind, and he could feel the rumble of Fenris’s chuckle. “Yes, you’re much too pedestrian for me, Hawke.”

“So that day you left early to take care of your husband, you were...actually taking care of your husband?” Anders asked.

“Of course. What did you think?”

“That you were sneaking off to do dirty things in a motel room!” Merrill chirped. Hawke flushed red and Fenris laughed.

“What she said. Honestly, it read like a textbook affair,” Varric said.

“I suppose you’d know?” Fenris questioned from above Hawke’s shoulder.

Varric scoffed. “I would never cheat on my lady.”

“Well,” Hawke said. “I hope you all know now that I would never cheat on Fenris. Except with Fenris.” 

“Ah, but would Fenris never cheat on you?” Varric’s eyes twinkled.

Hawke turned his head to look at Fenris and smiled. “Everyone knows Fenris settled when he married me. Better watch him.” Fenris huffed and kissed Hawke’s temple. 

The staring died out after that.


End file.
